Government, business leaders attend summit

The Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies completed its
"State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit" last week, a first in what is
envisioned to be a series of programs focusing on the Gulf of Mexico.
By all measures, the conference was a huge success; the program
featured a star-studded cast of participants, including governors from
four of the Gulf states.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was the co-host of the summit and was
instrumental in enticing fellow governors to attend. Gov. Fidel Herrera
of the state of Veracruz, Gov. Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, and Gov.
Eugenio Hernandez of Tamaulipas were the other featured speakers. Gov.
Hernandez was so impressed that he extended an invitation to have the
following summit in Tampico. This was a very welcome gesture from Gov.
Hernandez, since a major objective of the Harte Institute is to address
the issues of the Gulf from a multi-national perspective.

Adm. James Watkins, chair of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy,
set the stage on identification of not only the problems but how to
work collectively to make progress on these issues. The program also
involved Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher, administrator of National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Stephen Johnson, administrator
of the Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. James Cato, director of the
Florida Sea Grant Program, Dr. Michael Orbach, director of the Duke
University Marine Laboratory, and Dr. Sylvia Earle, chair of the Harte
Institute's Advisory Council and Explorer-in-Residence of the National
Geographic Institute, to mention a few of the headliners.

John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Company, Eugenio Clariond,
CEO of Grupo IMSA, Monterrey, and Michael Reddin, vice president of BP
Corporation, were among business and industry participants.

The single regret I have is that we could not open up the program to
more in this community. For our first conference of this type, we
needed to keep it to a limited number of participants. We also wanted
to have a wide cross-section of the people, those who are able to "make
a difference," using Ed Harte's admonition to the institute. Thus our
participants came from business and industry, federal and state
governmental officials, non-governmental organizations, and the
educational arena - and from both Mexico and the U.S. With such an
impressive group leading the program, we had to restrict participation
to invitees only.

However, in subsequent activities, we want to involve a much broader
group so that the important issues related to the Gulf can be debated
and understood by many people. We particularly want to involve students
since they will be the decision-makers of the future. The summit
provided a wonderful opportunity to showcase the Harte Research
Institute and the Corpus Christi area. Because of the success of the
summit, the 430 participants will remember what has occurred here over
the past week and look forward to the next round.

Robert R. Furgason is executive director of the Harte Research
Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.